Statesmen have demanded for revision of the African refugee law to have one integrated political unit as a way of walking in the footsteps of the former President of Ghana Kwame Nkrumah.
They made the call on September 20 at Makerere University in Kampala during Kwame Nkrumah’s public lecture to commemorate his struggles towards an integrated Africa.
“What we are saying is that let’s push for the vision and commitment to see Africa free, independent to be able to determine our own destiny and decisions,” Chief Guest Ruhakana Rugunda said.
Article one of the refugee convention defines a refugee as a person who for the fear of persecution over race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality.
European white men convened in Berlin, Germany in the mid-1880s for the international conference to decide on the fate of African scramble and partition.
The 1884-85 convention guided heads of state during the 1969 Organisation of African Union (OAU), turned African Union (AU) sitting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to accede to United Nations Conventions on the status of refugees.
Dr Rugunda called for the need to keep the public lecture an annual event highlighting the achievements by Nkrumah and telling the general public his efforts are still valid.
“His effort towards unity for not only Africa but the whole world cannot be taken for granted. If we can have an annual event, then we should have honored his struggles,” he said.
Major Gen Henry Masiko, Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces’ (UPDF) Chief Political Commissar, said it is possible to form a one federation of Africa.
“If Africa remains divided, we remain weak, marginalised and vulnerable,” he said.
Gen Masiko emphasised the need for revision of the refugee law noting that it leaves citizens to be treated as foreigners in their own communities while creating opportunities for humanitarian organisations.
“The groups claiming to be humanitarians are the one benefiting from refugee law because their survival is when Africans are miserable,” he stressed, expressing reason for revision of the law to align with the Pan-Africanist ideology.
“If we revised the refugee law and said people in a community like East Africa should be handled as internally displaced, you don’t need to bring the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).”
He said the free handouts from humanitarian groups make people not settle in their countries and yet they could withstand some disturbances.
According to the refugee law, as long as someone runs beyond a border, they become a responsibility of the UNHCR which is not happening anywhere in the rest of the world.
“In Europe, there’s no camps yet they have disturbances as of now and UNHCR is not doing the things they do here in Africa.”
UNHCR was initially started to facilitate the displacement of Palestinians when the Jews chased them from their land to create humanity for them.
Gen Masiko believes this was started as a conspiracy against humanity, questioning why the Palestinians were chased.
He suggested that the four month of Berlin Conference (November to February) be observed as the remembrance time of a bad thing that happened to Africa while popularizing the integration.
“If we moved in that direction, we would be successful because we have enough resources,” Gen Masiko noted.
He added that remembering that time would be one way of making Africans begin to think it is wrong to have been balkanized by foreigners.
The academic Registrar representing the Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe said Makerere University decided to name one of halls of residence after Nkrumah for his legacy.
“That gives you a feeling that it is a living memory of us to remember persons who carried for Africa to the next generation,” Prof Mukadasi Buyinza said.
He said Africa is still influenced by colonialism because the colonial masters have clanged on and they are still dictating the vision of its leadership due to absence of visionary leaders like Nkrumah.
On behalf of the university, he pledged that they will review their budget and plan for Nkrumah day public lectures annually.
